


Meet The Time as it Seeks Us

by Ailette



Category: Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Imported, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2008-07-11
Updated: 2008-09-12
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The New Avengers find a baby. To everyone’s surprise it’s Steve and Tony’s. The two are left to deal with an infant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Guys – you might want to see this,“ Spider-Man shouted.  


 

“I don’t think--“, Iron Man took out the last A.I.M. scientist with one of his repulsor rays, “I _want_ to see anything these guys invented.”  


 

Spider-Man’s head appeared through the door to the next lab. “Trust me, you’ll want to see this.”   


 

The rest of the current Avengers looked up at his uncharacteristically serious voice. As soon as they made their way through the unconscious A.I.M. scientists lying everywhere and into the next room, they knew the reason for his tone.   


 

Throughout the room stood a dozen man-high tanks, filled with a green glowing substance and…“My God,” Carol whispered.   


 

“Are- Are these babies? Hank, please tell me these aren’t babies.” Jan had taken a step forward and now stood directly in front of one of the tanks.   


 

“They are. Human embryos. The project name is “The All-Dominant Human”.” Tony’s voice sounded as neutral and robotic as ever through the armor, the tremble in it didn’t get through the voice filter. “I can’t access the detailed reports on the project right now, the encryption-- GET DOWN!“   


 

Without thinking, his teammates complied, having learned from numerous battles that obeying instructions like this often saved lives. They hadn’t even hit the ground when a bomb exploded at the far end of the room, sending a wave of lethal heat, and only seconds after glass shards and rocks in their direction.   


 

***

“I still can’t believe this is the only little worm we could save.” Jan sounded defeated, despite the fact that she smiled down at the baby sitting in front of her on the table. With the mop of spiky brown hair and her ridiculously huge cerulean eyes the baby looked just like any other normal baby.   


 

“She got lucky. The tank she was in only had a crack. All the other ones were completely smashed.” Steve dangled his pointer finger in front of the infant’s face. She laughed and grabbed it with her tiny fist.  


 

Jan briefly closed her eyes, hoping and failing to banish the memory of crushed little bodies on the floor. “What do you think Tony and Hank will come back with? I mean, “The All-Dominant Human” doesn’t sound like your average kid.”  


 

“We’ll see their test results as soon as they get them. And it can’t take very long; Tony managed to download all of A.I.M.’s files before everything exploded.” Tony had vanished from the scene of destruction as soon as they had found the baby. He didn’t wait for the rest of the Avengers to start the Quinjet, but flew straight back to Avengers Tower. Yellowjacket followed him to the lab only after he had taken a couple of samples from the infant after their arrival.   


 

“I still wouldn’t touch that. You never know what it might do to you--“, came Peter’s wary voice from the ceiling above them. Jarvis shot an unhappy look at the young man. He didn’t particularly care for the footprints he left at said ceiling.   


 

“She’s not an “it”! No matter what A.I.M. tried to do with her, she’s an innocent child, Peter!” exclaimed Steve sharply.  


 

“If you say so,” was Peter’s mumbled and slightly sulky reply. But it obviously wasn’t half as quietly said as he had thought, for someone else answered to it.   


 

“He’s right. She’s just as dangerous as a newborn can be.” It was Hank who strode into the Avengers Tower’s kitchen door alongside Tony. Excited by their arrival, the rest of the team assembled around the kitchen table.   


 

“So there’s nothing wrong with her?” Steve looked up from the still laughing child to meet Tony’s eyes. He was surprised when his friend avoided his gaze and just stared intently at the baby. That look was usually reserved for malfunctioning inventions. It meant trouble.   


 

“She’s perfectly healthy.” Hank shot Tony a slightly worried look. “And when I say “perfectly healthy” I mean it in that exact sense. Her health is perfect. Better then it has any right to be for a cloned baby.”  


 

“But… that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” With her mask out of the way, the confusion on Carol’s face was visible.   


 

Hank hesitated for the briefest of moments. “It is. But the reason for her perfect health is one of her clone-parents. Or rather, the Super-Soldier-Serum in his veins.”  


 

It took a moment before the heads at the table slowly turned to Steve. Steve himself looked dumbfounded. “But there are only a handful of people who were ever successfully interjected with the SSS.” Steve’s eyes widened, “She isn’t… They didn’t…”  


 

“You are one off the two persons A.I.M. used DNA from. So, technically, you’re her father,” Hank barely managed to end this sentence before everyone started talking at once.   


 

“Two persons?”  


 

“Does she have superpowers?”  


 

“You mean _Captain America has a daughter_?”  


 

“Who’s the other one?”  


 

“How could they just clone her?”   


 

“What will her name be? _Liberty_?”  


 

The biochemist raised his hands, trying to calm his friends down. It wasn’t until he raised his voice that they listened to him again. “We scanned her for the X-gene, but the results were negative. The small portion of the SSS in her blood suggests that she will only have a slightly enhanced healing factor and generally a very good health. Considering the other… um… donor doesn’t have any special powers, she’ll grow up to be a normal girl.”   


 

Steve’s brows were drawn together. Why would A.I.M. try to produce a child from him and a normal human? What could they have possibly hoped to achieve? Who was the second donor, as Hank had put it? Maybe Sharon? He hadn’t seen or talked to her for a couple of months now, but perhaps this could be a chance for them to get back together. If it was Sharon, he wouldn’t mind. But what were the odds? It was more likely some woman he had never even met. Jan’s voice interrupted his thoughts.   


 

“Can you find out who the woman is?” Hank noticeably looked more and more uncomfortable. He had started to shift his weight from one foot to the other while sending nervous glances in Tony’s direction. When he came to think of it, his friend was surprisingly quiet.   


 

“We could identify the… other parent, since they were in our database, but--“  


 

“Why do keep on coming up with new synonyms? Can’t you just tell us her name so we…”   


 

“It’s not a woman.” Peter’s voice cut through Carol’s request with a newfound clarity in it. Before anyone else could say anything, Tony finally cleared his throat in an attempt to get everyone’s attention. That he succeeded instantly said something about his authority.   


 

“It’s me, alright? The second set of DNA material A.I.M. used for this clone was taken from me.”  


 

Peter fell from the ceiling, but no one paid any attention to him. All eyes were on Tony. The businessman looked back at each of them with an unmoving face. Only when his eyes landed upon Steve did his expression change to one of uncertainty. Steve could more than sympathize with him.   


 

“You and I.” Steve pointed his finger first at Tony and then at himself as if to make absolutely sure his friend understood what he was saying. “Have a daughter.”   


 

Under the team’s collective gaze Tony nodded gravely before confirming it out loud. “Yes.”  


 

A charged silence fell. There were too many questions at this point, too many possibilities, for anyone to break it. Seconds ticked by. But someone would have to say something in the end.  


 

“So… When’s the wedding?” There was no reason why Peter shouldn’t be the one to do the honor.

.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been two days since they found the baby. Steve still couldn’t take his eyes from her for more then three minutes.   


Every time he looked at her, he discovered something new. Like the little blot of dark green in her left eye and the sprayed pattern of jade green in her right eye, and the way her fluffy mop of hair managed to always stick up in some completely random place, no matter how often he patted it down; or how her skin seemed to glow in different shades depending on her expression. Earlier today, he had tried to make a charcoal drawing, before he decided it didn’t do her any justice and threw the half-finished draft into his empty desk drawer. The same happened to the rough sketches he did with crayon, ink and coloured pencil. He would have tried oil paint next, if it hadn’t been for Jarvis who chose that precise moment to come in and ask if Steve wanted to heat up the milk himself or if he should do it. And as much as Steve liked Jarvis, he really didn’t want anyone else to touch his daughter just yet. It was nice to have her all to himself after his team mates had finally stopped cooing over her and asking to hold her. Though he had to promise they would be allowed to do more than just look at her tomorrow. God, he hoped tomorrow wouldn’t come until she was 18. Preferably even later.   


For now he was trying not to think about the inevitability of the next day technically starting in about two hours and instead concentrated on the book in his hands. He was incredibly comfortable like this. Lying on his bed, the window and the door opened a crack to let the stuffy air out, The Silmarillion in front of him and his daughter soundly asleep on top of him while drooling slightly on his chest.   


“Where is Tony? Did something happen?”   


Steve looked up from his book. Wasn’t that Carol’s voice? He had been sure everyone had gone to bed already. She definitely wasn’t upstairs. It sounded more like she was somewhere in the living room or at the conference table. It took him a moment to notice the smaller sounds of people roaming and chairs moving over soft carpet. The conference table then.   


“He’s at Stark Enterprises. Can you believe he hasn’t even looked at his own daughter yet?” Hank’s voice. Steve didn’t like to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help it at this point. It was impossible to close the door without waking the baby and he had to admit his interest spiked when he heard his friend’s name.  


“Oh, he looked at her. Once, when you and him came back from the lab with the results. As if he was thinking about how to get rid of her as quickly and as discreetly as possible.”  


“Come on, he was probably just shocked. You know him, he’s a great guy.”  


“He didn’t seem particularly shocked when we were in the lab. He just continued to mutter something like, ‘This can’t be. I can’t let this happen. I won’t let this happen. This can’t be!’”  


“You think he’s just worried for his reputation?”  


“Carol!”  


“What, Jan? You all know how the papers put it, “Billionaire playboy industrialist Tony Stark”. The ‘playboy’ always comes first. And Tony cares about PR.”  


“Yeah, but… maybe it’s something else. Maybe he’s just afraid of turning out like his father.”  


“Or he’s sure he’ll be a bad father. I don’t want to talk badly about him, but he _is_ a recovering alcoholic.”  


“Maybe… he just doesn’t care for this child, it has happened before, right? Parents abandoning their children simply because they don’t feel any responsibility for them.”  


A brief silence began to stretch out, before it was interrupted by a more cheery voice. “At least she’s got Cap. How can you go wrong with a father like that?”  


“Captain America as a dad surely will keep the admirers at bay.”  


“You bet. And he really loves kids…”  


Steve closed his eyes. He had to talk to Tony. _Soon_.  


***

"I can’t believe she still doesn’t have a name. It’s been three days since you found her. Why don’t you christen her?”   


Steve sighed. “Because I haven't really had a chance to talk to Tony yet, MJ. It doesn’t feel right if I pick a name for her, when we both are her parents.”   


“No one has talked to Tony. It’s like he vanished completely, straight after he and Hank told you guys the good news.” MJ made a face that more then said what she thought of Tony not being here at this moment.  


“Aw, come on, honey. I think “The Baby” is the best name ever. They won’t forget it. And when she gets older we’ll just call her “The Child”.” MJ gave her husband a look that was half amused and half a reproachful, _You’re not helping._ “Then again, Luke Cage’s baby still doesn’t have a name. And how old is she by now?”   


“Oh, but she does! I spoke to Jessica the other day. They named her Danielle.”  


Peter’s eyebrows went up. “After Iron Fist?” Since MJ just shrugged, Peter took that as a yes. “At least we have a new Avengers Baby now. It was way too quiet after they moved out.”  


The three of them were sitting in the living room of Avengers Tower; all concentrated on The Baby MJ was currently busy putting in a clean onesie. It was bright pink with white writing across the chest that read “Cuddle Monkey”. It was incredible how fast The Baby had gotten clothes, bibs and all kinds of baby accessories. Steve was sure none of the Avengers had left his sight (or rather their sight of the baby) for more then a couple of minutes and still the whole super human community appeared to know about his daughter already. And everyone had sent something. Not the usual plain pink clothes Steve had expected though. There were slogans on practically every single garment they received, the only items without were the hats in the form of cupcakes, strawberries or flowers, the bee pyjamas and the bunny hooded jacket. He was pretty sure Jan had something to do with most of the clothing. The good thing about all the gifts was the fact that they wouldn’t have to go shopping for the baby anytime soon (who in God’s name had sent the dozens of diaper boxes, Steve didn’t know.).   


“I’ll go to his office later today. We still need to go safety-shopping anyway…” Steve deliberately ignored the “aww”-face Peter made at his words and took his daughter from MJ to press her securely against his chest. It still was weird to think of the little creature in his arms as _his daughter_. He had dreamed of having his own family ever since he was a little boy, but after everything that had happened and kept on happening in his life, he unconsciously gave up on this dream coming true. They were basically attacked on a daily basis. The danger his family would be in by association, or of him dying were too high. He wanted a happy family, not a sad excuse for it. After a while he just accepted the Avengers, his friends, as his family. With Scott’s little Cassie coming over every now and then and Lionheart’s kids living with them in Avengers Mansion, it had been as close to perfect as he had ever hoped it could be. Of course, that had been before Wanda went insane.  


In any case, this wasn’t how he had expected things to turn out. All of a sudden he had a daughter with his best friend. Not that he minded having a child with Tony. He liked Tony. Even more than he liked  Sharon .  


“What’s up, Cap? Looking for a binkie?” Logan’s voice sounded rough when he came down the stairs. He must have come straight from the Quinjet bay, considering he was wearing his costume at this early hour and it now consisted mostly of shreds. And how did Wolverine know about The Baby already?  


Steve’s gaze fell upon the red and gold stroller the Richards had sent over. A tag on the side read, “My other stroller is Iron Man”. Maybe they shouldn’t take it out in public just yet. Instead Steve gave Logan a nod and went over to the mountain of baby gifts. He knew for certain they had gotten a… Steve smiled. There it was.   


***

Tony walked up and down in his office. If he hadn’t picked out the carpet for its resistance to stains and imprints he would be worried about leaving a permanent trail by now. He had been here for three days straight, without leaving his office once. There were advantages to having built your office like a big comfortable panic room. Though, he refused to think of his behaviour as hiding exactly. He wasn’t hiding from anyone. Especially not the baby. Or Steve. Or both of them together.  


Sliding his hand through his hair, Tony sighed. Who was he trying to kid? He was avoiding Steve and the baby. After all, he had a good reason for doing so. Letting himself fall into his office chair, he tried to understand how things had come to this. Hadn’t he tried everything to prevent it after she had told him? He had kept his distance from Cap, had allowed the Avengers to break up… Still, he had agreed when Steve wanted to start a new team. Hell, he had been more than happy to have a new team of Avengers. It was great. But eventually, it had led him here, to this point, the point he had wanted to prevent so badly. His gaze fell upon the skyline outside of the windows. He didn’t want this. Did he?  


His head was beginning to spin. His thoughts were running in circles, always coming back to the same question. Admittedly, he had never been able to stay away from Steve. It was impossible to stay away from him. The man had such a charismatic vibrancy; you couldn’t help but feel drawn to him. At least, Tony hoped he wasn't the only one who felt this way.  


Sighing, he reached out to the intercom next door via the Extremis. God, he loved that thing. He didn’t even have to move anymore to do business. Not even his _lips_.   


“Mrs. Rennie? Another cup of coffee and something for my headache.”  


“Saying “please” once in a while wouldn’t kill you.” Tony smirked. Life would be so dull without his employees giving him attitude.   


***

Katherine Rennie found herself making what had to be the twentieth cup of coffee since she came in. And it was barely past noon ! She generally liked Mr. Stark, but that goodwill went out of the window when the man was still half asleep or had been _staying in the office for days_.   


“Good afternoon, Mrs. Rennie.”  


Of course, there were upsides about her employer's refusal to go home. Like Captain  America showing up to drag him there. Turning around with her most brilliant smile, a cup of coffee in one and some Tylenol in the other hand, Katherine came to an abrupt halt when she caught sight of the object of her musings.   


Steve gave her his most reassuring smile while he carefully set two huge plastic bags down next to the door. “Is that for Tony?”  


The secretary slowly nodded, still mesmerized by the sight in front of her. Steve carefully took the cup and Tylenol bottle from her hands. “Then I’ll bring them in. We have to talk anyway. I suppose he doesn’t have an important meeting or anything at the moment?”  


Finally snapping out of her trance-like state, Mrs. Rennie snorted. “Mr. Stark hasn’t done anything that involves the outside world for the past three days.”  


Steve cocked an eyebrow at her tone. “Right. I’ll just go in then.”  


“Have fun.”   


***

A loud knock. Tony reluctantly turned his chair to face the door before he stood up. “Since when do you bother to knock? Just come in.”  


As the door opened, Steve entered with a bemused expression. “I always knock.”  


Tony just stared at him for a couple of seconds before he dryly remarked, “You have a carrier with a baby in it on your chest.”  


“I’m aware of that, thank you.” They looked at each other in silence until Steve closed the door behind him and walked over to his friend’s desk. He put the items he still held down and then heaved himself onto the desktop. “And this isn’t just any baby, it’s our baby. The baby you've decided to ignore completely.” Smoothly removing the carrier from his chest he carefully set the sleeping baby down in Tony’s empty office chair.   


“I wasn’t avoiding her.” It came out defensively, but Tony couldn’t bring himself to care.  


“Tony, we didn’t even have a chance to talk yet. I can understand how this situation overwhelms you, but it’s not just going away because you ignore it.”  


“I’m not ignoring it! It’s just…“  


“Are you uncomfortable with the thought of us having a child? Because no matter what Peter joked about, you don’t have to worry about me proposing to you.”  


Tony ignored the joke and just shook his head. “Then what is it?” Steve felt the barely suppressed anger in his chest boil when Tony didn’t bother to reply.   


“Then I guess the others were right when they said you probably didn’t want the kid because you’re afraid of damaging your reputation.” He knew it was a low shot, but he still flinched a little at Tony’s hurt expression. He was just about to apologise when the window front burst into shreds.   


Even much later, Steve could never clearly remember what happened next. There was a flash of gold and red as Tony’s armour flew past him. Without so much as thinking about it, he got his shield from his back, ready to throw it at whatever or whoever was stupid enough to attack them. He heard Tony’s voice yelling, “She’s safe!” But before he had the time to comprehend just what that meant he felt something hard collide with his shield at precisely the same moment everything went dark.   


***

At first, Steve thought he had lost consciousness. Everything was so quiet. It took him a second to realize he could see faded silhouettes through a wall of black smoke. He still couldn’t hear anything though. A glint of red caught his eye. _Tony_. _The baby_. Ignoring the small pieces of debris in his way, Steve strode toward the metallic shimmer as fast as he could. He couldn’t lose them. Not yet. He didn’t even really have them yet. He hadn’t told Tony anything, hadn’t even realised it completely until now. His hands frantically went to uncover the armour from the shards of metal. Tony always had been special to him. He had always looked out for his friend, tried to help him when everyone else had already given up. Sometimes he felt like the only person in the world who could actually see the sadness in those dark blue eyes, hear the regret ~~s~~ in his voice, feel the self-hatred and miss that throaty laugh he heard less and less often these days. Sometimes he felt himself grew angry at the others for not noticing how easily hurt Tony was, for not remembering the _man_ behind the mask.   


His eyes stung by the time he had finally uncovered the chest plate. He froze. The armour was just a heap – Tony wasn’t wearing it. _“She’s safe!”_ It suddenly made sense. Tony must have commanded his armour to shield the baby. Resisting the urge to turn away from his daughter and search for Tony immediately, he heard himself mutter the override code for the armour, making it fly back into the nearest wall and thus revealing the little pink bunch that wailed loudly at him. For a moment, relief flooded through his veins. Nothing had happened to her. Then the fear came back, even stronger then before. Steve had been protected by his shield, their daughter by the armour. Tony had had _nothing_.  


Faintly, he heard sirens come towards them, but his mind hardly processed this piece of information. Hastily he stumbled through the chaos of loose wires, metal splinters and glass everywhere to get to where he had last seen Tony. He could see a bloodied hand dangling out from under what must have been Tony’s desk. Steve felt his knees scrape over something sharp on the ground as he quickly lowered himself, but he ignored the pain for now. His concentration was focused solely on the task of rescuing Tony without injuring him any further. A big metal plate separated the bloody hand from the rest of the body. There was a large puddle of blood beneath it and he could actually see where the plate of steel had nearly severed the hand from the arm at the wrist, the white bone shining through all the red liquid. Steve found himself breathing a sigh of relieve when he carefully lifted it up to realise the rest of Tony’s body had been protected by his desk. It must have fallen over when the darkness hit them and trapped its owner beneath it.   


“Tony!” Steve lightly slapped his cheek, hoping to wake him up. “Tony!”  


“Excuse me, sir.” Steve felt a hand on his shoulder and whirled around, ready to defend his friend. The man in front of him hurriedly held his hands out in front of him, obviously trying to convince him he wasn’t a threat. “I’m just here to help, sir. I’m a paramedic.” He gestured to his uniform. “If you could please step aside? I think Mr. Stark is in need of medical attention.”  


“Of course. Of course,” Steve heard himself mumbling. Absentmindedly he looked at his screaming daughter in the middle of the chaos. It all seemed surreal. There were no signs of the attackers anywhere and… “How did you get here so fast?”  


“I’m part of the medical emergency team of Stark Enterprises. We have a facility on the grounds so we can react faster in case of any accidents.”  


“Of course.” Tony had told him about this. His brain was a complete mess as he stood next to the team of paramedics and watched them inject Tony with what, most likely, were painkillers, and heave him onto a stretcher.   


“He’s coming to! Come on guys, we have to get him into surgery before his hand falls off--“ Tony blinked drowsily. Once, twice, before his eyes flew open. Too fast for any of the ambulance men to stop him, he sat up and grabbed Steve’s hand with his own uninjured one.   


“Where is Tími? Is she hurt?” A wild panic was written in his eyes. Steve needed to hear the baby scream to understand who Tony was talking about.   


“No. No, she’s alright.”   


“Thank God.” Steve felt his heart skip a beat when he saw his friend smile. It was so honest, so open and full of relief. Abruptly, Tony’s eyes rolled back into his skull before he fell back onto the stretcher, out cold. The paramedics shouted something and carried him out as fast as they could, leaving Steve to stare after them. Seconds elapsed before he could avert his eyes from the big and now empty hole in the wall. He wandered over to his daughter, picked her up and began to softly rock her in his arms to soothe her. _Tími_.  


***

As he sat next to Tony’s bed at the hospital, playing gee-gees with his daughter on his knees, he cocked his head and looked at her. _Their_ daughter. Tími. He liked the name. It had a nice ring to it. Foreign, but not difficult to pronounce. A groan averted his attention to his friend who slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before he shot a brief glance at Steve.   


“Are you mad at me? Should I pretend to still be asleep?”  


Steve’s voice was clouded with honest confusion. “Why would I be mad at you?”  


“Usually, when I nearly get myself killed, you yell at me afterwards.”  


Steve chuckled lightly, his eyes going back to the baby in his arms. He kept them there when he asked, “Why didn’t you come home? You gave her a name, so I suppose you care about her.”  


“I…” Tony sounded cautious. If Steve had looked up, he would have seen him picking on the sheets with his undamaged hand. “I just thought I wasn’t ready yet. This wasn’t supposed to happen, you know?” Without waiting for any kind of answer he went on. Now he had started talking, he might as well try to explain himself properly. Well, as properly as he could under these circumstances. “I’m still not ready for this and what it implies. I know I have no right to ask this of you, but please don’t make me tell you why. It has to be enough that none of the reasons the others suspected are true.”  


Steve’s eyes shot up, meeting Tony’s for a second before they both looked away again. Extremis. The word hung unspoken between them, explaining more then one thing at this point. The mood had become awkward. Steve cleared his throat. “So… Tími?”  


“It’s Icelandic for ‘time’.”  


“How do you know something like that?”  


“I looked it up on the internet,” Tony sounded sheepish, a smile evident in his voice. “You don’t like it?”  


“No, I like it. It’s pretty. I only thought about… um…”   


He could see Steve’s ears turn red from the corner of his eye. “If you want to add a second name, you should just say it.”  


“Well, I’d… I’d like her second name to be Sarah.”  


“After your mother? That’s nice. What should we do about her last name? Rogers? Stark?”  


“How about Stark-Rogers?”  


“Fantastic.” Tony beamed at him before his gaze fell on the newly named baby.   


“Do you want to hold her? I mean – can you hold her? Your hand…”  


“No, no, it’s alright. I can hold her.” The doctor had told Steve that Tony had gotten lucky with his hand. Had the metal plate penetrated the wrist any further, the nerves would have been severely damaged. As it was, they only had to “sew it back on”, as the doctor put it. With the Extremis’ help, he would most likely be able to properly use it again in one or two days. Fortunately it hadn’t been Tony’s writing hand; the man would go mad if he wasn’t able to tinker with anything for more than a couple of days in a row.  


Steve carefully placed their daughter in Tony’s arms, sitting back down with a curious feeling in his chest as he watched his friend’s eyes turn soft as he looked at his child. “Hello, you. Your parents just named you Tími Sarah Stark-Rogers. I’ll support you if you’ll want to sue us in the future.”  


Laughter rippled from deep inside Steve’s chest. “Your middle name is Edward and you turned out really well.”  


“I’m not sure if I should be insulted or flattered by that remark,” Tony said without taking his eyes off of Tími. And as Steve watched them -- his family -- for the first time, he suddenly knew the exact word for the feeling that was warming him from the inside. It didn’t surprise him half as much as it should have. _Love_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/13170.html)


	3. Chapter 3

Crying. Tony groaned. How could someone this small cry this loud? A quick look to the alarm clock next to his bed confirmed his assumptions; he only had gone to bed two hours ago. He could have checked with the Extremis, but really… not at this hour. The temptation to just turn around and wait for Steve to go look for Tími was great, but Steve had already stood up every time while Tony was still in the workshop. Surrendering to the bawl of destiny, he got out of bed and opened the door to the baby’s room. Still not ready to fully leave the fuzzy and sleepy part of his brain, he nearly ran into Steve who was holding their daughter at arms length.   


“Why are you up?” Tony asked, his tone as accusing as he could manage with his sleep-addled mind. “And why did I get up if you’re already here?” He wasn’t pouting. He was too tired to pout.  


Steve smiled apologetically. “I wasn’t sure you would wake up. After all, your day consisted of 48 hours.”  


“Of course I’d hear her. That’s the whole point of hacking into the baby monitor with--” Tony’s mouth snapped shut. He hadn’t wanted Steve to know he had done that. It sounded obsessive and geeky enough in his own head without Steve making fun of him for it.  


“You hacked into the baby monitor? Isn’t it even louder when you hear her screaming directly in your head?”  


“I can adjust the volume,” Tony muttered, still slightly embarrassed by his slip of tongue and now also because he had thought Steve would make fun of him. Of course Steve wouldn’t do that. No, he’d be worried instead which made Tony feel even worse. “Why is she crying anyway?” He carefully reached out to brush her cheek as Steve turned a little to give him easier access.   


“I’m not sure. Her diaper is still clean, she didn’t want the bottle and… hey, she stopped.” They both looked at her wearily before they looked at each other. “You think it’s safe to put her down again?”  


“I… I think so…”  


As soon as the baby touched the mattress, the screaming started again. Steve hastily brought her back up into his arms and continued rocking her. She wouldn’t stop crying until Tony awkwardly patted her on the head though. The same scenario replayed a couple of times and Tony was ready to fall asleep where he was standing when Steve suggested taking her to bed with him. As soon as he took one step away from Tony, the wailing started again.   


“Oh, come on you little attention seeker,” Tony muttered sourly. “Do you really need both of us around?” The heartbreaking sob was all the answer he would get from an infant. “Fine, then! Steve, take her with you, we’re sleeping in your bed.” Without waiting for Steve to comment on his plan, he went straight for the door on the other side of the room. Steve felt like stuttering when he followed Tony back into his room, but didn’t know what to say as he saw his friend already settling in on the right side of his bed.   


“Um,” he said instead. He waited a couple of seconds for anything to happen before he sighed softly, walked over, handed Tími over to her other dad and crawled under the sheets. Only then, he realized that he actually had just one bed sheet. As he turned around to offer getting a second one to Tony, he found his daughter dangling in front of his face, smiling at him. Gently taking her and laying her to rest on his chest, he stole another glance in Tony’s direction, only to find him inches away from him on the pillow, already asleep. Steve sighed. It was a good thing he didn’t move in any way when he slept. As a young boy he had rolled around in his sleep like there were miles of free space, often waking up with his forehead pressed to the wall instead of facing the ceiling. A lot of his behavior had changed with the war. There was no place to roll around in a fully manned army tent and it wasn’t too wise to move much when you slept only inches away from a cliff or maybe, unknowingly, a landmine.   


Looking at his friend, Steve couldn’t help but wonder if Tony knew about his feelings for him. To him it had become obvious in every little touch, every gesture he made and every word he said. All of a sudden, everything he did had something to do with Tony, seemed to have an ulterior motive. Of course he didn’t _say_ anything about it. He was fairly certain Tony only saw him as a friend and losing their friendship was too high a risk for Steve to take. But seeing him like this--his face peaceful and unguarded, the constant lines of worry on his forehead gone--it was hard not to move that little bit closer to press his lips against Tony’s, half hoping he’d wake up and kiss back, half fearing his reaction if he would do something like that.  


No, Steve thought, Tony couldn’t be aware of his feelings. Either that or he was secretly a very cruel sadist. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be running around with his hair completely dishevelled, just a towel around his waist, in a grease smeared shirt, those really tight work jeans, that black suit or--Steve stopped himself. If his list went any further, Tony wearing any kind of clothing was an attempt to seduce him. Well, to him it certainly felt like it was.   


Suddenly feeling very tired, Steve closed his eyes and tried not to relish in Tony’s nearby warmth too much.   


***

When he woke up, the first thing he felt was confusion. Confusion over the weight on his chest and on his left side. As he tried to move his left arm a little, the weight moaned. Just a moment before he opened his eyes, he recalled the end of last night’s Fight for Sleep as he’d secretly dubbed it. He turned his head a little to see if Tony had woken up from his attempt to free his arm, but his friend seemed to still be deeply asleep and--Steve tried to think of a different word, but really, ‘ _snuggled_ up against him’ was the only fitting expression. For a couple of seconds, Steve didn’t dare to blink. The sunlight shone in from behind them and illuminated Tony’s face in the most wonderful way. He had seen how sleep made Tony look so much younger and more at peace with himself before, but this… this was something entirely different.   


Tony’s hair looked even messier than it had in the middle of the night but it seemed to glow, just like the rest of his body. The blanket had slipped past his waist, exposing tanned skin, a muscular chest and sharp angles. The sight was taking Steve’s breath away, even the worried voice in his head that told him Tony wasn’t eating enough just died when his eyes fell on the pointed hips and began to travel along the seams of his boxers, following it to the dark trail of hair leading down from his navel.   


“Mmmh?” The drowsy sound caught his attention and his eyes snapped up to his friend’s face again, met by two dark orbs in place of Tony’s eyes. His pupils were huge and dilated, the black nearly taking over the stormy blue of his eyes. Steve shut his own eyes and pretended to still be asleep.  


“Steve?” It didn’t occur to Steve until after he had already slowed his breath to the minimum that it was pretty stupid to act as if he hadn’t been awake when Tony had already seen him. “What am I -- Oh, right.” But to his surprise, he just felt the sheet being lifted on his left and then a massive loss of warmth as Tony carefully got up and out of the bed. He listened to the quiet steps and couldn’t help but think about the numerous times Tony probably had done this, fled from one of his nightly conquests as soon as he woke up the next morning. The realization came with a pang of jealousy and a little guilt for thinking so badly about his friend. Suddenly, the weight of his chest was also lifted and a wail threatened to trash his sense of hearing.   


“Shh,” he heard Tony hastily mutter and then, “I didn’t know your daddy was such a deep sleeper…” Steve hoped to God Tony had already turned away again so he didn’t see his face turn a very deep shade of red, the one reserved for the times when he had to lie or he understood one of Clint’s dirty jokes about half an hour later then the rest of the team.  


***

Steve finally decided to get up about what felt like an hour after Tony had sneaked out of the room and was indeed nine minutes. Lying awake and being hyper aware of everything around you seemed to do that to your sense of time. He quickly changed from his sleeping attire into a pair of black jogging pants and a white T-shirt before he paid a short visit to the bathroom, and went down to the kitchen. He’d take a shower after he came back from his run around the block. Or maybe he’d use the gym today, depending on whether or not there would be any sparring partners. Sure, there were all kinds of robots and machines but as much as Tony swore on them, it just wasn’t the same as going up against a live human being.   


He entered the kitchen with a forced air of ease, only to drop it for relief as soon as he saw Peter, Mary-Jane, Jarvis and Logan buzzing about in there, but no Tony. As he casually asked Jarvis about Tony’s whereabouts, he got a deprecating look and the answer “As far from Miss Tími as possible, in a business meeting at Stark Enterprises.” As he would later learn, Tony had tried to feed their daughter instant coffee with her milk. Jarvis had only just been able to save the little girl from her caffeine deprived father.  


It was nice to have other people around for breakfast. All meals, really. In the very beginning of the Avengers he had mostly eaten alone and felt a little lost at the big table, except for the times when Jarvis joined him or Rick came over to plunder their fridge. He had been the only one of the Avengers to live at Avengers Mansion at that time. Now the Parkers and mostly Jarvis lived in Stark Tower, Bob and Mindy above them in the Sentry’s Watchtower, and the rest of the Avengers had rooms here even if they lived on their own. One never really knew where Logan lived, a trait he shared with Tony. Both of them seemed to dwell everywhere in the penthouse whenever they where here, only to vanish off the face of earth for a couple of days afterwards and then exclaim they had just been home. In Tony’s case those were mostly business meetings all around the world, he did have a residence in practically every country (even in Latveria, though he continued to declare he had no idea why Doom ever gave it to him).   


The other active members of the team (currently Hank, Jan and Carol) showed up nearly every day, either for coffee or to save  New York and humanity from some kind of evil. Besides the comfortable feeling of familiarity with it all, it also held the advantage of someone being available to watch the baby at all times. If he ever felt like having some time on his own again, it would be possible. And as impossible as that had sounded the first time MJ had volunteered for it, he felt like he might need it some time soon (in the beginning, Tími had been a very quiet baby). Right now Jarvis was fussing over all of them at the same time in a very dignified way, but to someone who had known the man for as long as Steve did, it was apparent his main focus was on the smallest person in the room wearing a light blue onesie with “Sleep is for the weak” written across it.   


The peaceful morning was interrupted by a knock on the wooden frame of the door. Tími started wailing at the top of her lungs, drawing everyone’s attention to the man standing in the open door. Clint Barton.   


“Woah. So I guess you guys really did have a little immaculate conception,” he stated, both eyebrows raised. If his hair hadn’t been so short now, they probably would have vanished beneath his hairline.  


“Why didn’t I come up with that?” Peter sulkily asked his wife, who just patted his head absent-mindedly.   


“We usually don’t call her that,” a broad grin spread across Steve’s face as he got up to give his old friend a hug. “What brings you here?”  


“I heard you got yourself a billionaire and knocked him up before your first date. I came to congratulate you, obviously, and to complain about not being asked to be your little lovechild’s godfather.”  


Having known Clint for a very long time, Steve managed to filter the real reason for his coming out of the jokes. “Sorry for not telling you. We didn’t actually tell anyone--everyone just suddenly knew. And we didn’t decide on godparents yet.”  


***

When Tony came back from work, he was in a worse mood than he usually was these days. Everything seemed to go just horribly, horribly wrong.   


_ “Say what you want, it’s inevitable.”  
_

His fists clenched at his side as he exited the elevator. Nothing was inevitable. He could do something about this, change things--   


_ “I can’t create paradoxes--everything that happens around me is fixed. Can’t change anything.”   
_

A question he had asked himself countless times re-entered his mind.   


_ “I could tell you what’s gonna happen with the Avengers some time soon, it wouldn’t matter.”  
_

_ “What’s going to happen to the Avengers?”  
_

_ “I just told you--it doesn’t matter. Whether I tell you or not, it’s going to take place.”  
_

If he had been more insistent, could he have made her tell him? Could he have stopped the disastrous events that followed? Scott, Vision and Clint’s death? Could he have stopped them from happening if he only had asked again? He remembered the other things she had talked about. The things that had come true, partly by his own fault.   


He entered the living room to find Steve and Clint sitting on the comfortable red sofa, talking. They hadn’t noticed him yet. He wondered briefly about the reason for Clint’s being here before his mind reeled back to his previous thoughts. Laughter suddenly erupted from Steve and he looked up. His lips switched to a happy grin as he waved at Tony who in turn nodded at the men on the couch and strode past them into the kitchen. From the corner of his eye he could see how the former Hawkeye murmured something and Steve’s attention was completely focused on him again.   


Why did he want to prevent it so badly? All the signs were that it would happen. A shudder went down his spine. No. It wouldn’t happen. He wouldn’t let it. Not because it was _inevitable_.   


He needed coffee to clear his head before he started working on the code problem. He would have to go to the garage again. It was impossible to concentrate when Steve was around. Even while he was hitting the buttons of the coffee machine with more force than necessary he felt his thoughts drift back to his first night home after the incident at Stark Enterprises.  


***   


After Tony had been released (or rather, released himself) from the hospital, the discussion about what to do with Tími in the night had begun. While he was still on medical leave from Avengers Tower, she had started to cry in the middle of the night, forcing Steve to get up every two to three hours. During this time she had slept in his room on the second floor of the penthouse. When Tony came back he arranged a room for her, next to his on the third floor.   


“How do we both react when she wakes up at night? I know we’ve got the baby monitor, but still… I’d like to be able to get to her immediately when she starts crying,” Steve said.  


Tony hesitated a moment. “Well, there is a spare room right next to hers. The construction workers are going to build in one door to my bedroom anyway, they could just include connection doors on both sides instead.”  


“You don’t need to build an extra door for me! I can just as easily go through the corridor when I hear her cry.”  


“Steve, the walls are soundproof.”  


His eyes widened a little. How had he not noticed that until now? “Why?”  


Tony raised his eyebrows a little. “Have you ever slept just a wall away from Hank and Jan?”  


After the construction was done and Steve had moved his stuff to his new room, he lay awake for hours, constantly looking at the door to his right, waiting for some kind of noise. Tony had ordered doors permeable to sound, just for him. The first noise he heard was Tony going from the bathroom on their floor to his bedroom. The third floor was more Tony’s private suite than it was part of the Avengers penthouse. Due to the floors containing so many rooms, everyone had fit in on the second floor. Steve hadn’t even thought about where Tony slept when he stayed at the tower. He always wondered more if Tony slept _at all_. But apparently Tony enjoyed having the floor all to himself, for he had never asked anyone to move up.  


Some time during his musings, Steve must have fallen asleep since he woke up from the bawling coming from the baby monitor on his night stand. Hastily he got up, trained to get ready for a fight in seconds. Theoretically, Tony could also go from deeply asleep to fully armoured fighting mode within moments. The problem was his brain telling him when he really was in a life or death situation before he so much as opened his eyes. If he wasn’t, the only thing that could make his brain work was coffee. Lots and lots of coffee, preferably.   


As Steve entered the darkness of his daughter’s room he found the door to Tony’s bedroom open and the man himself slowly rocking Tími in his arms. As Tony turned to look at him, hair ruffled from sleep, Steve couldn’t help but smile at him. Then his eyes wandered down his friend’s neck and he suddenly realized that Tony was utterly naked. His eyes shot back up to Tony’s face, already feeling his own heating up. The drowsy look he got made it perfectly clear just how unaware Tony was of his state. Steve opened his mouth, then, without saying anything, he fled the room. He hoped to God Tony didn’t hear the shower turning on minutes later. Or Steve’s surprised gasp at the cold of the water.   


Later he would remember Pepper making a remark about Tony sleeping just as naked as his last name indicated. The next morning, Tony would smugly apologize about the night before and promise to sleep in shorts from now on. But at that moment, Steve was entirely sure he would die of embarrassment that very night.  


***   


Clint nearly fell off the couch when Steve told him the story about that particular night. “I swear, you guys are so going to end up married,” he ground out between giggles.   


Steve just stared at him. He wasn’t serious, was he? He couldn’t be serious. Steve wasn’t being obvious about his feelings for Tony. He wasn’t. Was he?  


“Oh, my God,” Clint’s laughter died from one second to the other. “You didn’t propose to him, did you?”  


“Of course not.” Steve bit his lip. That hadn’t been meant to come out like a question.  


“No need to go all Captain  America on me. I’m just saying, it would be so like you to propose to the other parent of your child, just for the sake of said child.” Clint cocked his head. “Even though he’d probably say yes.”  


“What?”  


Clint gave him a pointed look. “Oh, come on. He totally has a man-crush on you.”  


“You think?” Steve played with a loose thread, inconspicuously avoiding his friend’s eyes.   


“I’d say you have a crush on him, too.” In the back of his mind, Steve noticed that a ‘crush’ and a ‘man-crush’ probably weren’t the same thing.   


Clint considered him with an uncharacteristically serious gaze before he suddenly got up. “Anyway, I’ve got to talk to Jan. See you later, Cap.”   


Steve stared after his friend for a while. Maybe he should talk to Tony about all this after all. But there was also the possibility that Clint was right. What if he didn’t really fall in love with Tony, but just the idea of having a family? He’d only hurt Tony if he wasn’t completely sure about this. And there was no way he’d risk something like that. No, he decided, he had to be sure before he approached Tony. Absolutely sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/22328.html)

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: As always, a huge thank you to tmelange for doing a wonderful job. :)  
> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/12726.html)


End file.
